Articles Posted inSecond Degree Burns

In Arlington Heights, IL last week, a man was burned in his own home and a firefighter was injured when he responded to the fire–a fire that started from careless use of flammable materials inside the home.

The man was able to escape his smoke-filled basement after chemical fumes exploded in his face. Moments later, firefighters pulled out of the building just before the first floor collapsed. “We got out just in time,” said the Arlington Heights fire chief.

The homeowner was attempting to plug a hole in his basement with a flammable patching material when the nearby water heater turned on. The spark from the water heater ignited fumes created from the patching material. The man suffered first- and second-degree burns to his face from the ignited fumes but was able to escape along with his wife before firefighters showed up to the home.

In Coachella, CA this week, a driver suffered severe burns when propane tanks in the back of his pickup truck exploded while he waited with his family in a drive-through at a McDonald’s restaurant.

It was about 1:45 p.m. on a Saturday when the man heard a hissing noise coming from one of two tanks. When he stepped into the back of his pickup to check on the leaking tank, he created static electricity that ignited the leaking gas and caused a gas explosion in both tanks.

The blast had so much force that it caused the roof of the truck to buckle and the tailgate to blow off, striking a vehicle behind it. The fire engulfed the truck, scorched part of the drive-through, and damaged the roof of the restaurant

In late February, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Carlisle FoodService, announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer products. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately. Also, it is illegal to attempt to resell a recalled consumer product.

The type of product being recalled is beverage cups and mugs. About 111,000 units are targeted by the recall. The importer of these cups and mugs is Carlisle FoodService Products of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The danger related to these cups and mugs is that they can break when they come in contact with hot liquids, posing a threat of serious burns to consumers. Carlisle has received three reports of cups and mugs breaking during use with hot liquid. No injuries were reported, however.

The young girl in this case did sustain second degree burns and third degree burns, and was still in considerable plain a few weeks after the burn accident. But without her parents’ fast actions, the girl probably would have had much worse injuries–which could have required skin graft surgery to repair damaged skin.

In Maple Grove, Minnesota, a 15-year-old boy is spending a few days in a burn unit at Hennepin County Medical Center after a flash explosion in a science class that burned him and three other Maple Grove Junior High School students. The three others were treated and released, but the boy, Dane Neuberger, is still in the hospital suffering from second-degree burns on his face and neck.

Neuberger said he was simply taking notes in class when suddenly, and from seemingly out of nowhere, he was on fire. Neuberger was sitting in the front row of class when his teacher asked the ninth-graders to turn their desks toward a lab table while he conducted experiments. They were learning about the flammable substance methanol. But the flame that was supposed to stay in the bottle and consume the methanol did not do so, the container exploded.

The flame from the container came in contact with some spilled methanol that was left on a lab table, which caught fire. This is the fire that hit Neuberger in the face, neck and hand. It also caught his shirt, which he ripped off while the teacher rushed to help him.

According to a recent article in the Bismarck Tribune in North Dakota, a lawsuit seeking compensation for pain, medical expense and loss of income was filed in Northwest District Court in Williston, ND against seven companies on behalf of three men who sustained second degree burns and third degree burns when an oil rig exploded in late July.

The workers, all from North Dakota, were bringing up drilling pipe on a rig for their employer, Cyclone Drilling Inc. when gas escaped the well, causing an explosion and fire. Andrew Rohr, 53, and Timothy Bergee, 53, were hospitalized for well over a month. The lawsuit says Rohr has burns over 60 percent of his body, also suffered septic shock and now has heart problems. Bergee has burns covering 80 percent of his body, and a compromised immune system has caused life-threatening pneumonia, the suit says. The third worker, Jeff Morton, 39, of Stark County, is being treated on an outpatient basis for significant burns to his arms, said their attorney, Robert Hilliard of Texas.

“These men have all been put through hell. Two of our clients have more than half of their bodies covered with burned flesh. The third has had his arms horribly burned,” Hilliard said. “The bottom line is that six different companies failed to protect human lives [in order] to turn a buck.”

Two stories from Missouri in the past two weeks demonstrate just how much people still have to learn about safety on the job site. Carelessness almost resulted in people getting killed in these incidents.

First, in St. Louis, a construction worker was critically injured while working at a building that’s undergoing renovation–due to his own carelessness. A captain with the St. Louis Fire Department said that shortly after 9 a.m. on a Friday, a worker apparently used a blow torch to try and open a barrel marked “flammable”. Early reports were that the man suffered burns on more than 90 percent of his body. Such severe injures make it unlikely that the man will survive.

And in Olympian Village, Missouri, a few days later, a series of propane explosions rocked a busy part of town and terrified residents, though it appears that nobody was seriously inured–which is a miracle, given the size of the explosions. “There was a huge fireball. My guess is that it went about 300 feet into the air,” said one witness. “We heard the rumble from the first explosion, and then we felt the ground shake.”

An August 15 article in the Rapid City Journal in South Dakota told the story of firefighter Austin Whitney, who is in the long and painful process of recovering from severe burns across thirteen percent of his body. He received those second degree burns and third degree burns after the Coal Canyon wildfire trapped the 22-year-old and four fellow firefighters.

What is helping Austin to make the best recovery he can is this: the power of his mind. “His spirits are just out of this world. He is in such a good mindset,” said Robert Whitney, Austin’s father, from outside the hospital room just two days after Austin was burned. “He told me that this incident isn’t going to stop him from being a firefighter.”

Austin Whitney followed in the firefighting footsteps of his father, grandfather, and aunts and uncles. This summer was his first season with the South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression Division, a state firefighting agency. But Austin started fighting fires when he turned 18, joining the Pringle Volunteer Fire Department–the same department as his father and grandfather. He joined the Cascade Volunteer Fire Department the following year, and is now a co-captain. “It overjoyed me to no end,” said Austin’s father. “It excited me that he would take an interest like this.”

It seems that winter has come early to the Northeast, and surely there are many people in that region who have already started using firewood and other sources of fuel to heat their homes.

However, it is very important to think and take precautions before using a fireplace or other heating unit, because it is very easy to have an accident that causes a small fire to grow out of control, and possibly cause severe burns or swift, deadly smoke inhalation because the fire is in an enclosed space–a den or some other room.

Here is just one recent example of a person being careless and causing a life-threatening situation: In mid-September in Brooklyn Park, Maryland, fire investigators determined that a man who was burned a few days before in the basement of his Brooklyn Park home had poured gasoline on wet wood inside his fireplace.

In October 2011, Grossman Burn Centers announced the official opening of its new burn center in Phoenix, Arizona, at St. Luke’s Medical Center. The eight-bed unit is the fifth Grossman Burn Center, and the second outside the state of California.

GBC Medical Director Dr. Peter H. Grossman commented that “It is a privilege to partner with St. Luke’s Medical Center to bring additional state-of-the-art burn care services to Arizona. Our facility will complement Phoenix’s existing burn center by making more beds available to Arizona’s growing population, and by providing patients and referring physicians with more options for their burn treatment regimen. This is a very positive development for the Grossman Burn Centers, for St. Luke’s, and for Arizona.”

The Grossman Burn Center at St. Luke’s Medical Center provides a comprehensive suite of burn care services, from acute and reconstructive burn care, to rehabilitation and post-treatment emotional and psychological support. The center is under the direction of GBC Medical Director, Dr. Peter H. Grossman. It is managed on a day-to-day basis by Dr. Robert Bonillas and Dr. Anthony Admire, and staffed by physicians on the medical staff at St. Luke’s Medical Center trained in restorative burn care.